英语美文与传神翻译：死海求生（连载4）

Solo Sailor in Peril

文 | 英语和翻译实践者

引言

托尼·布利莫尔是一位世界级的帆船运动员。他最爱的一个是妻子，一个是大海。他渴望永远和妻子幸福地生活在一起，而大海却要扼杀他的这个梦想。

正文

4 Mysterious Signals

Canberra, Australia: At 10:50 Sunday evening, January 5, Mike Jackson-Calway leaned on the heavy swinging door to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC). He was on the night shift as senior coordinator.

Someone handed Jackson-Calway a telex. A satellite had picked up a “potential distress alert” from Exide Challenger. The message read: “WAITING THEY CONFIRM THIS DISTRESS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. REQUEST TO CONTACT ALL SHIPS IN THE VICINITY.”

After 15 years with the MRCC, the 64-year-old former merchant-navy captain knew many emergency calls turned out to be false alarms.

First, Jackson-Calway sent out a mayday, alerting any and all shipping in the area to Exide Challengers need for help.

Ninety minutes later, the phone rang. One of Jackson-Calway’s staff turned to him: “Youre not going to believe this. Theyve picked up two beacons from Exide Challenger, and two from Pour Amnesty International.”

That second boat was skippered by another Vendée Globe competitor, Frenchman Thierry Dubois. He was about ten nautical miles from Tony Bullimore.

What happened in the Southern Ocean? Jackson-Calway asked himself. One possibility was that both men had been caught in the same storm, abandoned their sinking boats and got into life rafts. That could explain the four beacons scattered around the area. (It was later learned that both Bullimores and Duboiss marker beacons were ripped free in the storm.) If that were so, it raised a nightmare scenario of having to locate two small life rafts in vast, stormy waters.

Jackson-Calway strode to the long chart table and pulled out the relevant map. It showed thousands of square miles of ocean, broken only by the lines of latitude and longitude. He estimated the location of the four beacons. “I make it 1400 nautical miles from Perth.”

“Can our aircraft fly that far?” asked his coordinator.

“Well have to hope so.” Jackson-Calway stared again at the chart of endless ocean.

“If theyre alive, theyre closer to Antarctica than they are to us,” said his coordinator. “God help them.”

The satellite weather picture showed a huge low-pressure pulse moving into the area. This phenomenon is sometimes called a bomb by meteorologists, so explosive it can generate storms that measure more than 1000 nautical miles across.

Then someone brought Jackson-Calway more bad news. No vessel had responded to the mayday call, indicating that there was no ship in the area. And now, because of the distance involved, he would have to summon the air force. He picked up the phone to notify the aviation search-and-rescue organization.

试译

4 神秘的信号

澳大利亚堪培拉：1月5日（星期天）晚上10点50分，麦克·杰克逊-卡尔威靠在海事救援协调中心沉重的旋转门上。他是中心的高级协调员，正在值夜班。

有人递给他一封电传，说卫星收到一种“未加证实的求救警报”，信号来自一艘名叫“伊格赛德挑战者号”的船。电传内容如下：等待他们尽快确认求救信号。请通知附近区域内的所有船只。

有着15年在协调中心工作的经验，这位64岁、曾经当过商船船长的老人知道：很多求救信号到头来都是虚警。

首先，杰克逊-卡尔威发出了一个国际遇险无线电呼救信号，提醒那一区域的所有各种船只向“伊格赛德挑战者号”提供帮助。

90分钟后，电话响了，杰克逊-卡尔威的一位同事对他说：“你可能觉得难以置信。他们从‘伊格赛德挑战者号’收到两个求救信号，也从‘泼尔大赦国际号’收到两个求救信号。”

另一艘求救的船由法国的蒂埃里·杜布瓦驾驶，他也是“旺代环球赛”的运动员，离托尼·布利莫尔约有10海里。

南海出了什么事？杰克逊-卡尔威自言自语道。一种可能是：两人遭遇了同一个风暴，抛弃沉船，登上了救生筏。这种可能可以解释同一区域里的4个求救信号。（事后得知，布利莫尔和杜布瓦的定位信标都脱离了他们的帆船，随波逐流。）事情果真如此的话，那将是一种恶梦般的场景——在风暴不止的广袤海域寻找两个小小的救生筏。

杰克逊-卡尔威大步走到长长的图表架前，取出相应的海图。图上描绘着数千平方英里的海域，标识着经线和纬线。他估计着四个信标的位置。“我分析出事地点据珀斯（澳大利亚西海岸城市）大约1400海里。”

“我们的飞机能飞到那儿吗？”他的同事问。

“我们只能希望能飞到。”杰克逊-卡尔威再次凝神于海图上那无垠的海洋。

“要是他们还活着的话，他们离南极的距离比离我们近。”他的同事说，“但愿上帝能帮助他们。”

卫星天气图显示出有一个巨大的低压槽正移向这一海域。这种天气有时被气象学家称为“炸弹”——一种波及海域超过1000海里的强大风暴。

接着，有人向杰克逊-卡尔威报告了其他坏消息。没有船只回答他们发出的国际遇险无线电呼救信号，表明没有船只航行在这一海域。现在，由于路途太远，他只得要求调动空军了。他拿起电话通知了航空搜寻与救援组织。

（未完待续，后面更精彩）

译者简介：从事英汉口译和笔译39年，译审，全国第一届和第二届“韩素音青年翻译奖”竞赛一等奖获得者；已出版译著8部，最新译著有《携火奔月》和《我的两次月球之旅》（上海交通大学出版社）。

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